//------------------------------// // The Aftermath // Story: Terror in Equestria 5: One Thousand Years Later // by StormLuna //------------------------------// It was midday in Ponyville and Colgate had not got any sleep in over 24 hours because of her non-stop watching of Twilight's situation. General Dark Night headed up to her room and asked, "Colgate, when are you going to come eat and when are you going to get some sleep? I know you have been watching all of this but still, you need food and you need rest." Colgate turned around and the first thing Dark Night noticed was that her eyes were a deeper blue. He asked, "Colgate, what happened to your eyes? They are a darker blue." Colgate replied, "Well I did put a lot of power into that storm and you are right, I need food and I need some rest. I don't care if anypony else is hungry or not, I'm going to get something to eat!" Dark Night said, "Well everypony is gathering for lunch right now anyway." Colgate replied, "Well good. This way I can hold a meeting immediately afterwards." When Colgate and Dark Night arrived in the dining hall everypony was looking at Colgate strangely. She looked like she was going to pass out and her eyes were a deeper shade of blue. Brevity asked, "Colgate, what happened to your eyes?" Colgate replied, "I cast the most powerful spell anypony has ever cast and I have been up for 36 hours straight. We are going to have lunch and then have a short meeting so I can tell you what happened. After that, I am going to take a nice, long nap." The chefs brought their meal into them and Colgate devoured hers so quickly that she didn't even get to taste it. She then lowered her head forward and took a short nap while everypony else was eating and talking among themselves. Finally everypony was finished eating and Luna nudged Colgate's shoulder and said, "Colgate, wake up. We are all done eating. What do you have to tell us in this meeting?" Colgate led them into the throne room where she addressed them. "Alright everypony, the hypercane spell was successful beyond my wildest dreams and the psychological warfare that Scootaloo was talking about, well we were able to score a win there." Scootaloo asked, "Did somepony in her envoy get killed?" Colgate replied, "Yes, one did. This one struck the dark goddess particularly hard. It unveiled a side of her that nopony has seen in over a thousand years, she broke down crying uncontrollably." Lemon Hearts asked, "Which one of her minions got killed?" Colgate got a huge grin on her face and replied, "Shining Armor was the one who was killed. Which has me thinking that we should have one of our changelings emulate her brother when they attack. That will kill any morale she will have left by the time they get there." Everypony looked stunned. They never expected Colgate to have such detailed plans for psychological warfare, which is something Twilight never even thought of. Lyra asked, "Colgate, what caused you to decide to use these kinds of tactics? Even Twilight never once thought about psychological warfare." Colgate growled, "Look Lyra, I'm not Twilight and I am tired. Twilight wasn't bright enough to know how to take things to the next level like I have. She was vicious and wrathful against her enemies but she never once thought about destroying the psyche of her enemies by taking the lives of those her enemies hold so dear." Applejack asked, "Ah know you are happy Colgate but don't you think you're gloating a bit. Y'all know that is something you have always warned about." Colgate lifted her head up a bit and replied, "Yes, that I have. I guess I am so tired that I don't even know what shouldn't be running through my mind. This meeting is adjourned. We will have a more detailed meeting after I get some sleep and monitor Twilight more." Colgate headed up to her room and collapsed into her bed. She fell asleep very quickly. While she was getting some much needed peaceful sleep, the same could not be said for Twilight. On Dragon Island dawn has arrived. The skies are still shrouded in blue clouds and a blue drizzle is falling but the winds had stopped entirely and there was no more lightning. Dark Caves walked over to Twilight to discover that she had finally fallen asleep next to her brother's remains. She woke up and started crying again. She was hoping that yesterday had been just an awful dream but she knew for sure that it wasn't. She looked up at her colonel and said, "Dark Caves, everypony, we need to give my brother a proper burial. We can't just leave him laying in here like this." LaurFa nuzzled Twilight and replied, "I know we do. I do believe that this cave would be a better place to bury him than outside. That way his grave won't get soaked with water every time a storm moves through." Without being asked Twilight's officers quickly blasted a good sized grave to lower Shining Armor's remains into. LaurFa levitated his body into the grave and then covered his remains with the rocks and dirt that Twilight's dark Alicorns had blasted out. Twilight stood over his grave and said, "Goodbye Shining Armor. I know you are in a better place now where death and destruction never happen." Finally they leave the cave to figure out where they are and to check on the ship. As they walked out of the cave the rain began to pick up a bit and they discovered their ship lay in ruins. Twilight began to cry more and asked, "How are we supposed to even go anywhere now? Our ship lay in ruins and I don't know any spells to repair ships." LaurFa replied, "We need to figure something out because we can't stay on this island and I don't even know which island this is." Dark Caves added, "And we need to find something to eat and find fresh water." They walked deeper into the dense forest which provided good cover from the rain which had became heavy again. There they found a small fresh water lake and numerous plum bushes. Twilight said, "This will be a good place for us to try and get our bearings straight. This forest provides good protection from the weather and there is water and food." LaurFa asked, "Twilight, do you think we are on Dragon Island? I know our path took us very close to it." Twilight replied, "If it did we need to be careful. I don't feel like becoming dragon food." LaurFa asked, "Twilight, I just thought of something. If we were to run into Spike do you think you would be able to cast your loyalty spell on him?" Twilight replied, "I might be able to but there is a major problem. I don't know if I would even be able to. I do have to look him in the eye at a decent distance and if he is still mad at me, that will be impossible." Captain Dark Sky heard lots of growling and roaring off in the distance. He said, "Well I think we are on Dragon Island for sure. For right now I think we should stay here where we won't be spotted." This really frustrated Twilight and angered her a bit. She shouted, "Look Dark Sky, last time I checked I am the pony in charge here, NOT you. We can't hide here forever." LaurFa replied, "Twilight, I think we should keep it down. This is the last place we would want to have a dragon right in our faces. Escaping would be next to impossible. I do agree that we can't stay here forever. I think we should go out and explore this place. We need to know how far away we are from the coast." Twilight got a smile and asked, "Do you think we will run into Spike? You guys are too negative! Yes there is a chance that Spike might still be mad at me but I'm sure he has forgiven me. After all, who could stay mad at me forever?" LaurFa rolled her eyes realizing that Twilight was on another ego trip as they followed Twilight out of the dense forest. The rain had finally stopped but the skies were still shrouded in a dense overcast. Everypony else could hear the roars of dragons off in the distance. While this scared everypony else, it made Twilight excited and she led the her envoy in the direction of all the roaring. Finally they crawled to the top of a hill and they saw dragons flying all over the place off in the distance. Twilight was looking as hard as she could but she could not see any purple dragons which disappointed her greatly. She said, "I'm not seeing him. Maybe he is on the other side of the island. I think we should fly over there and see. LaurFa growled, "Twilight, are you nuts? We will easily be spotted and most likely get eaten. I think we should head back to the dense forest we were in and wait until tomorrow morning. Can't you see that it is already starting to get dark?" Twilight knew LaurFa was right and grudgingly lead them back to the dense forest where they were hiding out earlier. Twilight grunted, "Ok, we're back here. But tomorrow morning, after breakfast, we are heading to the other side of this island. We are not leaving this island until I find Spike." Dark Hooves replied, "No disrespect but what if he doesn't even live here? Are there any other areas in the world where dragons live?" Twilight, with a voice dripping in sarcasm said, "Oh, no disrespect but what if he doesn't even live here? Are there any other areas in the world where dragons live? Well duh there are other areas where they live, but right now most of them are here. The area of Equestria they migrate to every other year is currently covered in snow, which very few dragons like and Spike hated the cold." LaurFa rolled her eyes and said, "Well for now let's just eat some supper and get some rest. We can go on your silly dragon hunt tomorrow. I will tell you this though. If we start getting chased by dragons I'm out of here. I'm loyal to you Twilight but I will not allow myself to be eaten by a dragon just so you can find a dragon who might not want to see you." Twilight flew over to the other side of the pond and pouted. She felt like nopony else cared yet she knew that without them, that her quest to retake the world would be impossible so she couldn't kill them or banish them. Finally darkness set in and everypony tried to get some rest. They slept well knowing that the chances were slim that a dragon would find them in the dense forest.